So my normally reliable Bonneville is acting up on me. Its been a while since I've been to this sight and I did a search and found nothing, maybe you experts can help me out.

Symptoms-i noticed about a week ago that it seemed to want to shift later than normal in low gears. I didn't think too much of it and checked the fluid and it was a little low. But yesterday she really started acting up. once she shifted out of 2 nd gear after almost redlining the car would surge back and forth between gears like it was searching. If i got the car over 60 mph it seemed to be fine but everywhere between 0-60 it was doing a weird surging thing and just running funny(and not funny ha ha). I dropped it off to my tranny guy and he tried to pull codes. O2 sensor, which I knew about, and nothing else. He pulled the stick and agreed with me that the fluid smelled pretty scorched. He told me that there is a common problem with some kind of ring in the clutch that rides back and forth until it wears out. That is most likely my problem and said it would be 800-1200 to fix. I politely thanked him and said "No thanks" I left the car there and tended to some other business and dropped my wife off to drive it home. She said it took her 25 minutes to make a 10 minute drive due to the fact that the car didn't seem to want to go into the higher gears. Now this car is high miles at 180k+. I put in a 65k engine about 20k ago, but the tranny is still original. Any thoughts? Does this sound like somehting common? Any help would be appreciated. I can tear apart an engine and reassemble them in my sleep (especially this one due to a small intake problem), but I know very little about the tranny. Thanks

common?

not really, not the failure mode you've described. but if your fluid smells like you say it does, it sounds like your clutches are just about done. which in turn means that a rebuild is in order.

call around, see how much different places will quote you, as well as warranties...

My first inclination is to go to my local U-Wrench-It and get me a replacement, but if someone knew of how I could repair this particular problem, or at least what to look at to see what was arong then maybe I could get some new parts instead of a total replacement that may be of questionable value

any repair for this will require tearing the trans apart. Not impossible, but not something I recommend to anyone who doesn't feel comfortable doing it... which is just about everyone.

How much for a u-wrench tranny? if it has a warranty of any appreciable period of time, it might be worth a shot...

Wow, I wasn't sure what it was gonna cost, so i gave them a call, they said 59.95 plus $10 core! Sounds like a pain in the butt to remove two tranny'*, and put one in but you definately can't beat the price. can't remember, and I forgot to ask, but I think they have a 90 day warranty, which would be plenty of time to find out if the thing was trash or not. Hopefully they will have one there. Anyone know what tranny'* would fit? Does it have to be a 95, or will any from 92-99 fit? What about Grand Prixs, Ams, etc etc? just wondering. I have yet to go out there and find the exact car and exact part I needed. Hence the 96 rear bumper and 94 front valance and 97 console on the car now.

i believe that the 95 requires a 95 Trans only because of some differnt internal wiring